"Cooking for people who need help is very rewarding. I know what they need to go into their systems." -- Chef Housine Harrabi

I look surprised when Houcine Harrabi tells me he doesn't cook with butter. He laughs and says, "A lot of people, they give me that same look when I tell them."

He explains that he has a passion for cooking healthy, super-nutritious meals. "It's a mingling of Mediterranean and Louisiana, but I avoid the fat," he says. "I only use extra-virgin olive oil."

Harrabi is the chef and kitchen manager for the NO/AIDS Task Force Food for Friends, a program that delivers tasty, nutritious meals to homebound clients affected by HIV. The former floor manager at Vacherie in the French Quarter went to work for the agency when the new Food for Friends & First Unitarian Church Community Kitchen was completed in July. The church uses the kitchen on nights and weekends, and Harrabi is there working every weekday.

"Cooking for people who need help is very rewarding," he says. "I know what they need to go into their systems. I'm very happy I can contribute."

The new kitchen replaces the one in the St. Rose of Lima Church building on Columbus Street that was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, Food for Friends operated out of Covenant House for a short time before turning over the cooking to Palate New Orleans, a local caterer.

''Now, I do all the cooking, from A to Z," Harrabi says.

From a farm in Tunisia to a kitchen in New Orleans

The day I visited, Harrabi had finished preparing the hot meals and was sealing the last ones in their containers before putting them into the walk-in freezer. Every Tuesday morning, Glen Kahrman, Food for Friends program manager, packages up a week's worth of breakfasts, snacks and dinners. Then, volunteers deliver them to various places in greater New Orleans, including the north shore.

"Hats off to our drivers," Harrabi says. "They are really committed. They show up faithfully every Tuesday."

I get a tour of the kitchen while he tells me about himself:

Harrabi grew up on a farm in Tunisia in northern Africa. "It was a huge farm, and the cash crops were almonds and olives," he says.

He remembers, as a boy, watching a camel on the farm operate a stone press to turn olives into olive oil. "The camel went around and around," he says. "Then, in the '70s, we moved from camel power to electricity."

He remembers when President John F. Kennedy died, 50 years ago this month. "I was 5 years old, and my mother took us two miles away to see his funeral at my uncle's house," he says. "My uncle had a small black and white TV hooked up to the battery of his car."

Food for Friends holiday pie sale 2013

What: Apple, pecan and pumpkin pies are sold to raise money for the NO/AIDS Task Force's home-delivered meals program and food pantry.

Cost: $15 for each nine-inch pie.

To order: E-mail Food for Friends program manager Glen Kahrman at glenk@noaidstf.org or call him at 504.821.2601, ext. 254. You can also FAX orders to 504.821.2040. Please place orders by Nov. 20. Find out more about volunteering with Food for Friends -- including baking holiday pies -- by contacting Kahrman.

Pick-up: Pies can be picked up at the Food for Friends kitchen, at the side entrance of the First Unitarian Church, 2903 Jefferson Ave. (South Claiborne at Jefferson Avenue), Nov. 26 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you order five or more pies, you can get free delivery in Jefferson and Orleans parishes.

At home, his mother made everything from scratch, including rugs and blankets. Shepherds would shear the sheep, and his mother would weave the wool on her hand-made loom.

"And we had all fresh food. We grew everything we ate," he says. "People talk about how we should eat now. We ate that way every day."

From the time he was small, he was fascinated by the United States and wanted to come here. "My mother used to say America was below us, and when it was summer in Tunisia, it was winter there," he says. "My father dug water wells, and I used to look down in the wells to try to see America."

Gumbo, jambalaya, jazz: A warm welcome

When Harrabi grew up, he traveled to England, and he didn't like the food there at all. He came to New Orleans to teach French at Trinity Episcopal School, not sure what to expect of the city. He arrived on the 4th of July, 25 years ago.

"I had read 'Huckleberry Finn' when I was studying English, and there I was on the Mississippi River with all the fireworks going off," he says.

When he had his first taste of gumbo and jambalaya in New Orleans, he couldn't believe his good fortune. "I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, I am in heaven,'" he says.

Harrabi loved jazz, and he loved the friendliness of New Orleanians, so, of course, he stayed. "It was such a welcoming place," he says. "I don't know anyone who came here who didn't fall in love with the city."

When we sat down to eat the delicious meal he had prepared, he explained how he cooks: "I like to create. This morning, I had the idea of the tilapia fish," he says. "It's like when an artist uses different colors to paint."

We ate pan-seared tilapia served over couscous with steamed carrots and asparagus. The gravy was made with garlic and chicken stock.

"I use olive oil and add flax seeds to make it more nutritious for people with HIV and AIDS," he says.

He does research to see which foods are high in protein, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. "One day I was Googling the good stuff to see the health benefits, and I found arugula," he says.

He read about all the vitamins and minerals it contains, and he ordered fresh arugula to use in his menus. "When I opened the box, I saw that it was what we called 'tifaf'' in Tunisian Arabic," he says. "When I was growing up, we would feed it to our cows, and I would eat it raw right out of our fields."

Volunteer piemakers

Although Harrabi usually does all the cooking in his shiny new kitchen, the weekend before Thanksgiving, he will need help baking hundreds of pies for the sixth annual Food for Friends Holiday Pie Sale. He and his friend Jerry Pelayo will lead a brigade of volunteer bakers.

"Jerry is a lawyer who loves to bake. We will need lots of volunteers who also have a passion for baking," Harrabi says.

The sale will include nine-inch apple, pumpkin and pecan pies for Thanksgiving. Each pie costs $15, and each pie sale will provide generous Thanksgiving dinners for three Food for Friends clients. If you live in Jefferson or Orleans parish, you can get free delivery of the pies when you order five or more.

"We have been experimenting with the recipes, and the pies are going to be delicious," Harrabi says.

The pie sale raises money for the Food for Friends home-delivered meals and food pantry. In 2012, Food for Friends delivered more than 39,000 meals to homebound clients and distributed 125,000 pounds of groceries to clients through the food pantry. Women make up 35 percent of the clients, and most of them have children living with them.

Harrabi, Pelayo and the volunteer bakers will make the pies the way Harrabi prepares everything in his kitchen: with love. When he is dreaming up delectable dishes, Harrabi often thinks of something his mother told him many years ago. She said: "Your brothers don't necessarily come from your mother and your father. They can come from anywhere."

"When I cook, I am cooking for my brothers and sisters," he says. "I am cooking for my family."